1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor apparatus, and more particularly, to a technology for configuring a fuse circuit.
2. Related Art
A semiconductor apparatus and a semiconductor memory apparatus have fuse circuits for changing internal settings or is programming repair addresses, etc. Fuses included in the fuse circuits may store addresses and/or specified setting information through fuse programming. The electrical connection characteristic of a fuse may change when a laser beam or an electrical stress is applied to the fuse, which may in turn change the electrical resistance value of the fuse. Using changes in the fuse's electrical connection state, the fuse circuit may program specific information.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional fuse circuit of a semiconductor apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional fuse circuit of a semiconductor apparatus includes a fuse positive voltage generation unit 1, a fuse negative voltage generation unit 2, a fuse stress voltage driving unit 3, and a fuse state output unit 4.
The fuse positive voltage generation unit 1 performs a charge pumping to generate a positive voltage VINT_POSITIVE, which is higher than a power supply voltage, while the fuse negative voltage generation unit 2 performs a charge pumping to generate a negative voltage VINT_NEGATIVE, which is lower than a ground voltage.
The fuse stress voltage driving unit 3 supplies the positive voltage VINT_POSITIVE and the negative voltage VINT_NEGATIVE to terminals N1 and N2 of a fuse E-FUSE, respectively, under the control of a rupture enable signal RUPTURE_EN. When the positive voltage VINT_POSITIVE and the negative voltage VINT_NEGATIVE are applied to fuse E-FUSE, the electrical connection state in fuse E-FUSE changes due to the applied electrical stress. For example, fuse E-FUSE could have a high resistance value before the electrical stress is applied and a low resistance value after the electrical stress is applied.
The fuse state output unit 4 senses the electrical connection state of fuse E-FUSE and outputs a fuse state signal FUSE_OUT. The fuse state output unit 4 latches the fuse state signal FUSE_OUT under the control of an initialization signal INIT.
As described above, the conventional fuse circuit uses both of the fuse positive voltage generation unit 1 and the fuse negative voltage generation unit 2 to generate fuse stress voltages. The fuse positive voltage generation unit 1 and the fuse negative voltage generation unit 2, however, occupy a significant layout space since each of them includes an oscillator, a charge pumping circuit, and a voltage stabilization circuit. In addition, power transmission lines need to be additionally provided to transmit the generated fuse stress voltages. Moreover, the power transmission lines occupy substantially large layout areas so as to prevent power loss. Further, the fuse state output unit 4 has a fixed sensing sensitivity without the ability to control the sensing sensitivity.